1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to clamp-type garment hangers.
2. State of the Art
Clamp-type garment hangers having at least one clamp are well-known for the suspension or hanging of garments such as pants, skirts, etc. The “pinch-type” clamp is a variety of clamp that has a clamp end having a pair of opposed clamp or jaw members between which a portion of the garment is secured, and a handle portion having a pair of spaced apart handles. Provision is made for biasing the jaw members towards each other to create the clamping force necessary to retain a garment between inner surfaces of the jaw members. The jaw end of the clamp is hinged to the handle portion such that squeezing or pinching the handles toward one another, i.e., to reduce the space between the handles, causes the jaw members to open to receive or release a garment. To further retain the garment between the inner surfaces of the members, the clamp or jaw members typically also include inner surface gripping elements or friction increasing surfaces.
An example of a clamp-type hanger is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,854 to Blanchard, which describes a hanger with a clamp having a jaw end, a handle portion at an opposite end from the jaw end, and a hinge point between the two ends. The jaw ends are provided with resilient friction pads to engage a garment provided in the clamp. A C-shaped spring clip provides the means for biasing the jaws to a closed position.
Another exemplar clamp-type hanger is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,799 to Batts. This clamp hanger has two sets of toothed elements on the inside of one of the jaws, which surround a single toothed element on the other of the jaws to secure a garment in the clamp of the hanger.
While the known clamp-type hangers are useful in holding a variety of garments, long garments (such as pants) typically extend far below the garment hanger. This requires that a display rack that showcases such garments provide a large vertical dimension. The large vertical dimension limits the number of articles that can be made readily visible and presented to the customer for a given amount of wall space/display space. In addition, the large vertical dimension limits the suitability of the clamp-type hanger in space-limited environments such as shipping containers.
Thus, there remains a need in the art to provide an improved clamp-type garment hanger that enables a reduction in the vertical dimension of a garment held by the garment hanger.